2008 Woodie Awards
The oh-so-substantial final staff editorial: Thumbs up, thumbs down
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Opinion
Thumbs up
Res Life is tender and knows
no gender… sometimes
After the precipitous reappearance of gendered bathrooms in previously neutral sections of Kirk Hall, students wrote a proposal to Residential Life for all-gender housing. Now, a section of Kirk will be dedicated to intentional community around gender issues.
Mac stands up
Congrats to the organizers of STAND and to Sandy Robson '08, who mobilized students and administrators around divestment from, policy on and support for victims of the Sudanese genocide. It's time Macalester ended complicity in genocide in Darfur and actively worked to its end; this year, students turned out in a way never before seen.
Deliver us from email
After campus email server Oracle Collaboration Suite experienced a series of crippling failures, Information and Technology Services accelerated the transition to the superb and supremely modern Google Apps for Education. Finally, an email server that not only isn't a complete disaster, but has a chat feature.
Addressing climate change, changing the culture
This year saw an amazing proliferation of work for sustainability. There are too many efforts to name here, but the sustainable design of the Institute for Global Citizenship building, moves to protect bicycle security and subsidize bus passes for students, the hiring of a sustainability manager and the swinging success of the Focus the Nation conference certainly come to mind. Realizing stakes and potential available at Mac and in the Twin Cities, student activists have built impressive local, national and global coalition on climate change. Mac Bubble? What Mac Bubble?
Thumbs down
Tenure killer: Qu'est-ce que c'est?
In decisions that confused and outraged nearly all who worked with them, two popular humanities professors - Scott Morgensen in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Diane Brown in French and Francophone Studies - were denied tenure. Perplexingly, both Morgensen and Brown received favorable third-year pre-tenure reviews and have secured book contracts. In short, something went wrong here. On a positive note, President Brian Rosenberg should be applauded for granting Assistant Professor Scott Morgensen's appeal of the denial decision. Here's hoping Morgensen is granted a favorable final outcome.
Res Life is tender and knows
no gender… sometimes
After the precipitous reappearance of gendered bathrooms in previously neutral sections of Kirk Hall, students wrote a proposal to Residential Life for all-gender housing. Now, a section of Kirk will be dedicated to intentional community around gender issues.
Mac stands up
Congrats to the organizers of STAND and to Sandy Robson '08, who mobilized students and administrators around divestment from, policy on and support for victims of the Sudanese genocide. It's time Macalester ended complicity in genocide in Darfur and actively worked to its end; this year, students turned out in a way never before seen.
Deliver us from email
After campus email server Oracle Collaboration Suite experienced a series of crippling failures, Information and Technology Services accelerated the transition to the superb and supremely modern Google Apps for Education. Finally, an email server that not only isn't a complete disaster, but has a chat feature.
Addressing climate change, changing the culture
This year saw an amazing proliferation of work for sustainability. There are too many efforts to name here, but the sustainable design of the Institute for Global Citizenship building, moves to protect bicycle security and subsidize bus passes for students, the hiring of a sustainability manager and the swinging success of the Focus the Nation conference certainly come to mind. Realizing stakes and potential available at Mac and in the Twin Cities, student activists have built impressive local, national and global coalition on climate change. Mac Bubble? What Mac Bubble?
Thumbs down
Tenure killer: Qu'est-ce que c'est?
In decisions that confused and outraged nearly all who worked with them, two popular humanities professors - Scott Morgensen in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Diane Brown in French and Francophone Studies - were denied tenure. Perplexingly, both Morgensen and Brown received favorable third-year pre-tenure reviews and have secured book contracts. In short, something went wrong here. On a positive note, President Brian Rosenberg should be applauded for granting Assistant Professor Scott Morgensen's appeal of the denial decision. Here's hoping Morgensen is granted a favorable final outcome.
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